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The Art of War
"The Art of War" is the 33rd episode of the second season of Exosquad. Summary A mission to deliver explosives to Earth Resistance lands Bronski and Takagi in Alaska, where they meet up with the Chicago resistance cell. They must place the explosives on a train so that the base to which it is going will be destroyed. But when they discover some of the cars carry many of the world's greatest art creations, Hanley hesitates. So they steal the cars with the art, plant the explosives in the particle accelerator, and get the empty cars destroyed so the Neos will stop looking for them. The rest of the train makes it to Great Slave Lake in Canada, where it explodes the next day. Synopsis :Click HERE of a detailed synopsis of " " Characters *Wolf Bronski *Kaz Takagi *Eve Hanley Quotes *Bronski, explaining Van Owen's death to Hanley: ::"He was trying to get the detonator, but it got him first." *During Hanley's attempt to convince her compatriots that they can't destroy the art: ::Hanley: "This isn't graffitti! I mea... we're talking about some of the greatest creations in human history." Tanaka: "If we don't win this war, there won't be any more human history." *Bronski, while firing at the Neos: ::"Take that, you lousy Philistine! Hey, what is a Philistine, anyway?" Significant events, revelations, and other notes *For all of the anti-Terran propaganda spoken by the Neosapien leadership, many of them have studied terran history. **“A Traitor Among Us”: the shuttle pilots ridicule beliefs such as the sun god and the Tooth Fairy. **“Mindset”: Marsala quotes Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord (it should have been Georges Clemenceau). **“The Dream War”, “No Surrender”: Marsala and J.T. Marsh tell Sean Napier about Douglas MacArthur's “I came through and I shall return.” speech after his escape from the Philippines. **“Fire Ship”: Typhonus tells Barca the history of the fire ship and the hellburners. **“The Price of Courage”: Phaeton tells Shiva the story of Julius Caesar and his decision to cross the Rubicon River and march against the capital of Rome. Both Phaeton and Shiva say the quote “The die is cast.” **“The Art of War”: Livia sees art as useful for understanding Terran psychology and psychiatry. **“Fifth Column”, “Abandon Hope”: Phaeton’s bunker has the phrase “Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch’intrate” (“Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.”), which is from Dante Alighieri’s “Divine Comedy”. *References to Livia’s lack of military and leadership ability. **”Abandon Hope”: Phaeton states he did trust Livia since she never considered mutiny. **”Night of the Traitor”: Phaeton says he trusts Livia since she is willing to report failure. Later she refuses to take Gracchus’s and Lucullus’s Coup d'état seriously. **”No Surrender”: Phaeton tells Livia that she lacks the ability to lie. He also states that she lacks military skill. **”The Art of War”: Livia tells Phaeton that understanding Terran art will allow the Neosapiens to win the war. In the next episode Exofleet wins the Battle of The Moon, which destroys most of the Neosapien E-frames. **”The Price of Courage”: Shiva's death apparently leaves Livia in sole command of the military on Earth, subject to Phaeton's approval. *This episode could be viewed as another contribution to viewing Phaeton as something other than evil. During parts of this series a comparison between Hitler and Phaeton seemed obvious. Both raised a beaten people to the brink of domination, both were genocidal, and many more. But Hitler loved art, while in this episode we see that Phaeton sees no need for it. Perhaps this was intended as a distinction so that Phaeton could avoid being cast as another Hitler, which is important if an attempt to view Phaeton as a tragic figure is to be made. **Another distinction between Phaeton and Hitler is their management skills. ***Unlike Hitler, Phaeton displays an understanding of tactics, strategy, and logistics. ***Phaeton does not use a visible secret police that results in automatic resentment from the military. He only introduces the Neo Megas and Neo Lords after his Neosapien commanders fail to destroy Exofleet and the Pirate Clans. ***Phaeton's military plans are well written. While Phaeton does make some mistakes, such as his obsession with Marsh, his generals commit equally severe mistakes. *Several comparisions can be made to the character of Mitth'raw'nuruodo (Thrawn) from the "Stars Wars" universe. **Livia sees art as useful for understanding Terrans, but is not a skilled leader. **Phaeton is a skilled leader in politics and some military areas, but sees art as useless. **Thrawn saw art as useful for psychological warfare and was a supremely skilled leader. *This episode appears to have been inspired by the 1964 movie "The Train", or the Rose Valland novel on which it was based. That story involves the French resistance collaborating with railroad workers to thwart the transport of artistic masterpieces to Nazi Germany. *Eve and Wolf begin to develop feelings for each other. *Some of the world's great works of art are saved from destruction. *Something is occurring in a Neo facility at Great Slave Lake, and it is deemed important enough to have it targeted by a demolition mission. 46 33